Daddy Flashcards
Who wrote daddy
Sylvia Plath
When was daddy published and in what collection
Wrote in 1962 and published posthumously in 1965 in ariel
What is the theme of daddy
Conflict with relationships
Reflection of Time
What is the structure of daddy
Spondees
Rhyming incantation for nursery rhyme
What is the form of daddy
Quintets
Confessional poem
What is the tone of daddy
Harsh
What is the overview of daddy
She’s describing the relationship between her dad and Ted hughes and their violence
Quick language techniques
- jocauler “I think I may well be a Jew” to cast oppression, allusion to WW2
- antithesis “no god but a swastika”
- symbolic colour of black white and red - swastika
- Metaphor for picturing hughes as father “I made a model of you”
- symbolism of vampire to show how each figure drained her
What is the context of daddy
The arrangement young Sylvia had “one can only speculate what effect performing for this mysterious ‘colossal’ figure she barely knew must have had on the poets life and her attitudes to men”
Her dad Otto was ill and died in 1940 due to complications to diabetes
Met Ted Hughes Feb 1956, Married June 1956, Affair 1962, Suicide 1963
She wants to get rid of idolised father who haunts her but instead she re-envisioned him in terms of sexuality in Ted Hughes
“I identify ted with my father at certain times, ted in far is a male presence in a substitute for my father
Quotes by others on poem (critics)
“That this arrangement estranged biologist from his children is an understatement. Each evening they were allowed to come down for half an hour and do other kinds of performances for him”
“When the speaker says shes through with daddy at the end of the poem sylvia seems to have worked her way through and been done with all these male dominating forces that had frustrated her for so long” - Connie Ann Kirk
“The poem then moves to a derisive commentary on the idealised image of the father “marble heavy, a bag full of god” - Jon Rosenblatt
